Monday, March 29, 2010

Few years ago, my friend returned from South after a huge offering in a temple(What we call Chadhawaa, in Hindi).The occasion was her grandfather’s 80th birthday. The chadhawaa was worth lakhs of rupees asa donation to the temple authorities. I said, instead of this donation, if her family would have donated this amount to some needy or poor, god would have been happier. With due respect to the sentiments and the religious beliefs, I strongly believe that God would be happier with the donation made to AIDS or cancer patients who do not even have enough money to survive, let alone treatment.Service to mankind is service to God.

This incident struck my mind again when UP CM Mayawati celebrated her extravagant birthday while she was felicitated by a huge currency garland worth crores of rupees. Ah!! If ministers turn so spendthrift imagine the rate at which our economy will go down the drains.To add to it, one garland wasn’t enough, she was garlanded second time witha garland weighing little less than the first. I guess they couldn’t find more currency notes in reserve. Post the criticism of the pomp and show , the authorities claim that it was a gift from the collection made by the supporters of the party and their savior Behan.

How inconsiderate can somebody be !! UP government almost everytime has been pinpointed for its mismanagement and ineffective rule. Poverty and unemployment still are the major issues of the state. How can some body even think of being so ruthless and self centered? On one hand we avoid crackers on Diwali to keep a check on pollution, and look at this extreme case of extravaganza on minister’s birthday!And how calm can the Income Tax dept remain about this blatant show of money and power. Its the public money after all.

Our former President Dr. Kalam kept such a low profile on his birthday. Why can’t others learn something from such an iconic personality? Had she spend this amount on the welfare project for UP state, I am sure she would have been blessed a triple times!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

It actually takes a lot of efforts to build a brand name for somebody or lets say gain a positive image in public. Pertaining to the image of Hockey in India, it was lot of hard work and concrete results to make it a popular game during those days. India consistently won Hockey championships and it was promoted nationwide on a massive scale. Players like Dhyan chand, Dhanraj Pillay, Udham Singh Did proud to our country end number of times. Cricket barged in later and caught attention like western culture. Factors which promoted hockey started deteriorating. Money which was spent on Hockey promotion was gradually directed to cricket.

Even our players agree that they are not well paid. True!!Cricket players when retire, have a good amount of property value with them, while hockey players are still struggling to live a decent life. There are no sponsors for hockey any more!! India has not shown consistency in winning hockey championships too…..I would like to state that the cause and consequence are inter related or depend on each other. Isnt it? Its formed a vicious cycle. To add to the fact, its wouldn't be wrong if I say that Hockey is not encouraged at the school level too. If the school authorities take some interest in the sport and encourage it at the grass root level, it would certainly produce some good players in future. Good players and supporters after-all take the league ahead!

N not only hockey, but over all, sports is not encouraged as a career by Indian parents. Bogged by society and class pressure, parents envisage their children to excel in academics rather than sports. Strange! Father and son enjoy cricket together, but father never encourages son to choose cricket as a career. However, cricket has a good fan following than hockey has. There are no takers of our national game in our nation. What a shame.

BCCI has crores of INR to spend on cricket. But, Is hockey federation that broke? If even one third of the money which BCCI has, is spent on hockey ,then at least Hockey would not lie neglected the way its today. Players should be well treated, taken care of. They deserve some investment, don’t they?

Gradually Hockey vanished from the screens of the televisions and the fame faded in the façade of time. Cricket has gripped the nation with its charm.Cricket brings the nation together.So why cant Hockey? Well, because hockey players are mostly from specific communities or castes only which leaves a fan following only from that section. People representation is missing I guess!!

Government should have taken some extra steps to promote hockey like they are doing now.It was only after CHAK DE that many people realized the actual situation of the players and the state of the game.We need more initiatives.

Sponsorship, a world cup victory and root level nurturing is what one needs to bring that passion for something, be it cricket or be our national game which has lost its shine now.